Oslo: Weekend City Break
For my first official blog I decided to take the time and post about our family weekend trip to Oslo, Norway. First off I will start by saying Oslo isn't your "typical" Norway. Yes it has fjords and beautiful scenery but not like you see in other parts of Norway. This is a booming city, with lots of culture and many things to see and do. So let's begin!We flew into Oslo/Rygge airport from London/Stansted, the airport was extremely clean and easy to navigate (unlike the trainwreck that is Stansted). There are a few options to transport you from the Rygge airport to Oslo city center.
1. A taxi (which I heard was outrageous)
2. The train (which sounded confusing)
3. The Rygge Expressen bus to city center
We decided on the bus experience and we were glad that we did! The bus even came equipped with baby seats for our little guy to sit back and relax in! The bus was 320 Norwegian Kronor for return ticket which really wasn't too bad.
Here's X in his baby seat:
After the 45 minute/hour long bus ride we arrived in Oslo city center! Our hotel was the Radisson Blu adjacent to the bus terminal, train station, and shopping centers which made it easily accessible for all of our needs! The hotel was fairly clean and comfortable and most importantly had a phenomenal breakfast that just couldn't be beat! One of the most important things that we got in Oslo was the "Oslo City Pass."
You pay for an allotted amount of time 24, 48, or 72 hours and it allows you into virtually everything in Oslo and all the public transportation! It's great if you want to see everything in a short amount of time! Oslo has great art gallerys, one of which features "The Scream" By Munch. Which was really cool to see in person!
In addition to the art galleries, Oslo featured a Viking ship museum, several marine exploration museums, science museums, modern art museums, and a folk museum. X really enjoyed running around the folk museum. It is HUGE, features old Norwegian villages, animals, farms and lots of other things! This is the stave church located at the folk museum. It is very neat to see along with the other buildings.
Another great thing about visiting Norway was the food! I saw so many glorious seafood platters of fresh shrimp, mussels, and salmon. I had smoked salmon and smoked mackeral with my breakfast every single morning. We also indulged in typical Norwegian food which was Reindeer, potatoes, veggies and gravy. It sounds gross but it really actually tasted great and X loved it! Norway is also known for their coffee. Norwegians drink almost 4 cups of coffee a day so coffee shops were all over the place. One thing about their coffee is that it is slightly bitter because they roast it for half the amount of time that we do. Z really liked it but I found it to be a bit bitter so I mostly indulged in a pastry, my fave being the Norwegian School bread! SO GOOD!
On our last day in Oslo, we ventured over to the waterside to see the Oslo Opera house and the Akershush fortress. Both were really beautiful, but I will say the Akershus fortress is NOT stroller friendly. X ended up on Z's shoulders and I ended up carrying the stroller so it wouldn't get damaged from the cobblestones. After our walk around the fortress we ventured over to the docs and did a great and relaxing cruise around OsloFjord:
All in all we really enjoyed our city break to Oslo. We would love to return to Norway some day and experience the "real" fjord country and all it's beauty. I still kept my Norway guidebook in hopes that one day I can reuse it to plan a trip to Fjord Country!
After seeing your pictures I put Norway on my list of places to see! Can't wait to start working so we can travel!
ReplyDeleteNice blog read :))
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